Over the course of this week, the artist Banksy has been out daily painting an animal at various locations across London. The sequence of events generally goes like this.
Overnight: Banksy (or his henchpeople) paint an animal silhouette on a wall somewhere. Early morning: Local people wonder "hmmm, is that a Banksy?" and upload photos. Mid-morning: London media borrow the photos and ask "hmm, is this a Banksy?" Lunchtime: Banksy claims the art with a photo on Instagram. Afternoon: London media borrow his photo and exclaim "ooh, another Banksy!"
Sometimes there's an additional stage.
Greed kicks in: Masked thieves steal the artwork and run off with it.
I went on safari around London yesterday to try to see the full menagerie.
This was the first animal to appear, a goat precariously balanced on the side of a terraced house on Kew Green with small rocks tumbling from its hooves. It's an excellent location for surreptitious painting because there's a dead end access road at the bottom of the wall. It's also an excellent location for viewing because it directly faces the elevated pavement on the approach to Kew Bridge. A lot of people were standing there smiling and taking photos.
But something's changed since the goat was painted on Monday - it's been covered over by the obligatory sheet of perspex. It's almost like a security company is primed to knock on the door of any building Banksy paints on and say "nice little earner you've got there, it'd be so easy for it to get damaged, can we sell you a protective laminate?" The plastic wrecks the view a bit but at least the goat is still there, undaubed and unsplashed.
This is when people started to wonder if Banksy had a series of paintings up his sleeve. Two stencilled elephants appeared in Chelsea in adjacent windows along Edith Grove (officially on the end wall of a Georgian house in Edith Terrace). It's an excellent location for a painting because the windows are a blanked out so make ideal canvases, whilst also being a long way above the pavement to discourage amateur fiddling. Alas amateur fiddling has taken place.
Those lacy white stripes weren't there on Tuesday, someone's laddered up since and added them, and not particularly well either. Why is there always someone who thinks they can do it better? That said people were still standing outside the church opposite and taking lots of photos. Many of them were quite posh, as befits the area, and I had to stifle a smirk as one designer blonde pulled a well-practiced pout before taking a particularly strained selfie.
This is when it became apparent multiple artworks were appearing, with a third Banksy in three days emerging above Brick Lane. Three monkeys could suddenly be seen hanging from the Overground viaduct, which after two elephants and one goat suggested a numerical sequence might be in play. It's an excellent location for a surreptitious painting because the traffic's almost non-existent. It's also an excellent location for viewing because Brick Lane heaves with tourists who love buying Banksy tat.
Let's be fair, it's not the most thrilling of Banksy's quintet, although there is a certain ingenuity to the three apes hanging from an existing groove in the side of the viaduct. Plenty of gawpers were standing around in the road underneath, although you had to be 'in the know' to realise this was anything particularly out of the ordinary. Graffiti and the edges of railways have always gone together.
This is when events took an awkward turn. A howling wolf appeared on a satellite dish above a shuttered shop in Peckham at the less frequented end of Rye Lane. Unusually it wasn't painted in situ, the dish was daubed elsewhere and added on the roof overnight. Alas within an hour of Banksy claiming the work three hooded figures turned up with a stepladder, reached up, swiped it and ran off down the street making violent gestures at anyone who tried filming them.
There is thus absolutely nothing to see so absolutely nobody was looking, preferring to pass by with bags of budget shopping or wraps of just-grilled street food. The theft of the wolf made a lot of Banksy fans very cross, confirming their jaded worldview of inner city immorality. But it is just possible that the black-clad figures stealing the work were in fact all part of the plan, coordinated by Banksy himself, in a highly successful attempt to drum up publicity.
This is the latest artwork, the fifth in the animals sequence, and appeared overnight above a much-loved chip shop just north of Walthamstow High Street on Pretoria Avenue. It's the cleverest so far because the pelicans are pinching fish, one dipping into the shop's sign. It's a nice location because it's embedded in the local community, and should also bring a boost to trade for Bonners Fish Bar who've been battering here for many years, as you can tell from their old-style telephone number.
This time I got there early, before even Time Out noticed, having been alerted by the first mutterings of "hmmm, is that a Banksy?" on social media. A tiny handful of curious locals had turned up, plus the first of the press photographers with a big lens on a tripod. Two tenants emerging from the house opposite completely failed to spot anything was amiss and were politely informed by the local streetsweeper who was having quite a morning of it. Even if this one gets damaged, nicked or perspexed I can at least say I saw it when it was fresh.
At time of posting we don't know where the next animal will appear, nor what it'll be, nor if it'll be the last. There's plainly some kind of message to be delivered, perhaps ecological, perhaps political, and the final flourish should tell us what that is. In the week after serious rioting perhaps we're due a lesson on unity beating thuggery. Whatever, I had a nice day out on an art-focused orienteering course, and perhaps don't try this yourself because it took absolutely ages.
